Rangers

Biron Beats Leafs, Earns 1st Win With Rangers

Dion Phaneuf #3 of the Toronto Maple Leafs gets stripped of the puck by Vaclav Prospal #20 of the New York Rangers during game action at the Air Canada Centre October 21, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)

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TORONTO (AP) — Ron Wilson wasn’t concerned about where the goals were coming from as long as the Toronto Maple Leafs were winning. The coach has started to care.

Ruslan Fedotenko and Artem Anisimov provided all the offense the New York Rangers needed Thursday night, scoring first-period goals in a 2-1 victory over the Maple Leafs.

It was the second straight game Toronto’s offense sputtered, prompting Wilson to start juggling his forward lines for the first time. It wasn’t enough to spark a comeback.

“They managed to get two (early) and then muddied up the game,” Wilson said. “We didn’t want to get our nose dirty by going into the hard areas, coming across to support the puck. We got what we deserved.”

Tyler Bozak received a strong message from the coach by getting dropped from the top line — “I didn’t think he was playing well,” said Wilson — and spent only 2:09 on the ice in the third period.

Bozak and Mikhail Grabovski, the team’s top two centers, are without a goal through six games. It wasn’t a major concern when Toronto won its first four games, but a further shake up might be in order now that it has dropped the last two.

Martin Biron earned the victory in his debut with the Rangers (2-2-1), who are without three of their top forwards in Marian Gaborik, Vinny Prospal and Chris Drury. It was New York’s first win since an opening-night victory at Buffalo.

Colby Armstrong scored his first goal of the season for Toronto (4-1-1).

The Rangers looked like the hungrier team all evening. They won battles for the puck, played with urgency and repeatedly sacrificed their bodies — blocking 30 shots (18 by defensemen Michael Del Zotto, Dan Girardi and Michal Rozsival).

“Little things like that make a difference,” Maple Leafs forward Mike Zigomanis said.

It was exactly the kind of effort the Rangers were seeking.

“As a team, I think this was the first time this year that we played a solid 60 minutes,” Biron said. “We have to play up to that standard the rest of the season.”

One bright spot for the Maple Leafs was the play of backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson, who was making his first home start of the season. He looked sharp early in turning away Ryan Callahan’s chance with his blocker before shutting the door on Anisimov’s rush.

The only shots to beat him came 61 seconds apart near the end of the first period. Gustavsson finished with 30 saves.

“I felt good,” he said. “It doesn’t matter in the end because we didn’t win.”

That 2-0 lead provided a nice cushion for Biron, who wasn’t tested very much by the Leafs in the opening 40 minutes.

Wilson recognized that his team didn’t have its legs and urged them to start trying to create more traffic in front. The habit of staying on the perimeter is also something he thought plagued them during Monday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Islanders.

“The last game we didn’t score a five-on-five goal for almost the same reason,” Wilson said. “We weren’t willing to go to the front of the net. If anything, we’ve got some great lessons to be learned.”

Armstrong’s goal came on a play where he was charging to the net. Clarke MacArthur made a nice move to carry the puck into the zone and rang a shot off Biron’s mask before Armstrong put in the rebound at 11:04 of the third period.

That gave the Leafs some life, but they couldn’t complete the comeback.

“I think that’s the first time we didn’t play the way we really wanted to play,” Armstrong said. “I think we’re a pretty fast team, and at times we were looking a step behind or not winning our battles. … We had our spurts here and there, the last 10 minutes of the third I thought we came on pretty hard, but it was just a little too late.”

Notes: Leafs forward Phil Kessel has scored at least one goal in nine of his last 12 games, dating to the start of preseason. … The Leafs scratched John Mitchell and Carl Gunnarsson. … D Steve Eminger sat out for New York. … Rangers No. 1 goalie Henrik Lundqvist expects to start 60-to-65 games this season. He has averaged 71 games over the last four seasons.